Wachs Rebecca A, Wellman Steven M, Porvasnik Stacy L, Lakes Emily H, Cornelison R Chase, Song Young Hye, Allen Kyle D, Schmidt Christine E
J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
Department of Biological Systems Engineering, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.
Cells Tissues Organs. 2023;212(6):512-522. doi: 10.1159/000525704. Epub 2022 Aug 26.
Peripheral nerve injury results in loss of motor and sensory function distal to the nerve injury and is often permanent in nerve gaps longer than 5 cm. Autologous nerve grafts (nerve autografts) utilize patients' own nerve tissue from another part of their body to repair the defect and are the gold standard in care. However, there is a limited autologous tissue supply, size mismatch between donor nerve and injured nerve, and morbidity at the site of nerve donation. Decellularized cadaveric nerve tissue alleviates some of these limitations and has demonstrated success clinically. We previously developed an alternative apoptosis-assisted decellularization process for nerve tissue. This new process may result in an ideal scaffold for peripheral nerve regeneration by gently removing cells and antigens while preserving delicate topographical cues. In addition, the apoptosis-assisted process requires less active processing time and is inexpensive. This study examines the utility of apoptosis-decellularized peripheral nerve scaffolds compared to detergent-decellularized peripheral nerve scaffolds and isograft controls in a rat nerve gap model. Results indicate that, at 8 weeks post-injury, apoptosis-decellularized peripheral nerve scaffolds perform similarly to detergent-decellularized and isograft controls in both functional (muscle weight recovery, gait analysis) and histological measures (neurofilament staining, macrophage infiltration). These new apoptosis-decellularized scaffolds hold great promise to provide a less expensive scaffold for nerve injury repair, with the potential to improve nerve regeneration and functional outcomes compared to current detergent-decellularized scaffolds.
周围神经损伤会导致神经损伤部位远端的运动和感觉功能丧失，对于长度超过5厘米的神经缺损，这种损伤往往是永久性的。自体神经移植（神经自体移植）利用患者自身身体其他部位的神经组织来修复缺损，是治疗的金标准。然而，自体组织供应有限，供体神经与受损神经之间存在尺寸不匹配的问题，并且神经供体部位会出现并发症。脱细胞尸体神经组织缓解了其中一些限制，并已在临床上取得成功。我们之前开发了一种用于神经组织的凋亡辅助脱细胞新方法。这个新方法可能通过在保留精细地形线索的同时温和地去除细胞和抗原，从而产生一种用于周围神经再生的理想支架。此外，凋亡辅助方法所需的主动处理时间更少且成本低廉。本研究在大鼠神经缺损模型中，比较了凋亡脱细胞周围神经支架与去污剂脱细胞周围神经支架以及同种异体移植对照的效用。结果表明，在损伤后8周，凋亡脱细胞周围神经支架在功能（肌肉重量恢复、步态分析）和组织学指标（神经丝染色、巨噬细胞浸润）方面的表现与去污剂脱细胞和同种异体移植对照相似。这些新型凋亡脱细胞支架有望为神经损伤修复提供一种成本更低的支架，与目前的去污剂脱细胞支架相比，有可能改善神经再生和功能结果。
